Adherence of the coating is a problem in the preparation of frozen and nonfrozen food products, particularly fish fillets. Batter starches have been used for covering the fish to cause bread crumbs to stick to the fish. It is well-known that these products do not do a completely satisfactory job because the coatings tend to fall off or pull away from the food product.
Recently U.S. Pat. No. 3,482,984 proposed a partial solution to this problem by teaching the method of using an aqueous solution of sodium hypochlorite to oxidize a starch product used in making batter mix. This process has the disadvantage of requiring special equipment to handle dry sodium hypochlorite, which is unstable and is a hazard in a plant.
Starch derived from dent corn, by itself, provides some adhesion of the breading material to the food piece. Fruin U.S. Pat. No. 3,767,826 discloses a batter mix made from a starch product which had been dry mixed with an oxidizing agent. Murray et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,597,227 discloses a method of improvement of deep fried potato slices by coating the surface of raw potato with amylose derived from the fractionation of whole starch prior to cooking in oil. Ducharme et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,052,545 discloses a batter mix composition comprising a starch having a sediment volume ranging from 40 to 50, and a granule swelling power ranging from 10 to 20 resulting from a mild cross-linking process.
Several modified cereal flours and combinations of modified cereal flours have been used by the frozen food industry for several years as a batter. However, none of the products is completely satisfactory.
An ideal batter is one that will adhere breading to the food piece under a wide range of conditions. Starch heretofore, by itself, has not had sufficient adhesive power to constitute an ideal batter.
We have discovered that starch from corn of the genetic composition fl.sub.1 fl.sub.1, by itself, can be used to produce a batter mix having excellent adhesive properties. Oxidation of the starch, aging under controlled conditions, and other types of treatment known in the art, further improve the adhesive properties of the fl.sub.1 fl.sub.1 starch.
The use of fl.sub.1 fl.sub.1 is important because it permits the use of cornstarch as batter starch without the need for oxidizing agents. However, the use of the proper amount of an oxidizing agent enhances the adhesive effect of the floury starch.